In 1988, Professor John Boys set up a magnetic field that transferred an electric charge across two points without the need for hard wiring. The commercial implications were obvious, though the timetables were not. Later he was joined by Associate Professors Grant Covic and Udaya Madawala and eight of their students in developing what is now called HalolPT technology.

Some 23 years later, the technology is so far advanced that it can recharge an electric car battery from more than twice the distance sought by car makers. Drivers will park over a plate and return to a totally recharged battery. The system even sends the driver a message when the charging is complete.

The task to sell the system to the car makers has been taken on by Qualcomm, which paid $70M for the opportunity and the IP. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, the world has one less electric car maker as last week once promising Aptera decided to shutter its doors.